Ken Mills Engineering Installs Bunting Metal Separators

The Neath Port Talbot materials recycling facility (MRF) in South Wales, UK was designed and installed by Ken Mills Engineering (KME).  The plant includes metal separation equipment designed and built by Bunting including a Permanent Overband Magnet and Eddy Current Separator.

Ken Mills Engineering (KME) is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of MRF systems, baling presses, twin raw balers, conveyors and shredders.  KME understands that every materials recycling facility (MRF) is unique based on the specific needs of the customer.  The KME team designs, builds and services a MRF to suit the warehouse space, types and volume of waste material to process, or end quality requirements.

The Neath Port Talbot Materials Reclamation Facility (MRF)

The container recycling MRF in Neath Port Talbot processes dry mixed recyclables such as film, plastic and cans.  The MRF design accommodates easy future modification, allowing the council to add other separation technology, such as optical sorting, if required.

In the plant, up to three (3) tonnes per hour of dry mixed recyclables passes through a bag splitter for liberation prior to a ballistic screen, which removes fines, and separates heavies and film.  Both technologies were supplied by BRT HARTNER.

Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metal Recovery

The heavies fraction passes on through a pre-sort cabin where film and unwanted products are manually removed, before travelling on a 900mm wide conveyor under a Bunting Permanent Overband Magnet (model 10PCB6) to recover steel beverage and food cans.

The remaining non-magnetic fraction (approximately 2.1 tonnes per hour) feeds onto the 1000mm wide belt of a Bunting Eddy Current Separator for the recovery of aluminium cans.  The recovered non-ferrous material passes through quality control cabin to check for any unwanted contamination

The sorted fractions of aluminium and plastic are bailed in a KME Aries twin ram baler, producing high density bales.

“The Bunting metal separators are just one stage in a successful recycling process,” explained Tom Higginbottom, Bunting’s Sales Engineer who worked on the project with KME.  “The ability to successfully recover the steel and aluminium is dependent on the feed.  The excellent plant design means that there is liberated feed to both the Overband Magnet and Eddy Current Separator, enabling the best possible metal recovery.”